Galaxy Nexus will not get Android 4.4 KitKat

Android 4.3 is the end of the line for the Samsung-made Nexus

Galaxy Nexus owners, you might want to sit down for this. Your device won't be getting an official update to the newly-announced Android 4.4 KitKat. Quoth the Google support site:

Galaxy Nexus will not be receiving the Android 4.4 update. For more information about Galaxy Nexus, visit the Nexus Help Center.

So that's that. The Galaxy Nexus will continue to run on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, but that's the end of the line. Effectively the Gnex, which hasn't been sold directly by Google for over a year, is now an end-of-life device. There's no reason given for the Galaxy Nexus's lack of Android 4.4 support, but it's certainly a perplexing decision given KitKat's focus on trimming down Android for less powerful devices. More likely it has to do with its age — coming up on two years — and the quirks of its hardware — the CPU is manufactured by TI, which is no longer a player in the smartphone chip market. There's always the custom ROM route, we suppose.

Surprising (and disappointing) as it may be, the Gnex led a long and full life, going from Android 4.0, through 4.1, 4.2 and eventually 4.3. There aren't many phones from that era that are still receiving updates — remember its contemporaries included the Galaxy S2 and original Motorola RAZR.

Nevertheless, the Galaxy Nexus was a breakthrough device for Android, heralding in the "Ice Cream Sandwich" age with a strong focus on design. It may not have been a big seller — especially in the U.S. where it was tied to Verizon for much of its life — but that won't stop us raising a glass to this milestone handset.

Bottom line is that we bought a Google phone and expect Google to stand behind it at least as good as Apple stand behind their products!
I guess my next phone may simply be an Apple... consumers do have a choice!

What a disappointment from google! Galaxy Nexus is not even 2 years old, it is still a very powerful and capable phone and it is a shame that google is not supporting it anymore. I've always thought that buying a nexus would guarantee updates until the hardware was not capable to run efficiently the updated OS any more and I even advised everyone against buying anything except from a Nexus for this reason alone. HUGE disappointment Google!

The Nexus devices have never had long support windows on software. Remember, the carrier pushes the evolution to continue for most of the contract life of the device they customized with their android overlay as long as they had sufficient unit sales.

People need to stop comparing this to the iOS 7 update. Apple updates older phones but it strips out major features the older the device gets. They know they can't shoe horn a full update into older hardware. AND they control the software and hardware in ways that Google can not, so it is easier for Apple to do so.

It's not a matter of faith, it's a matter of prioritization of resources. The Gnex is two years old and doesn't have very good adoption rates. Considering VZW and Sprint probably wouldn't push the updates.... It's not worth the time.

I think Google is fine with the Moto X and the MINI, ULTRA, and MAXX phones on Verizon. End goal is to get people on Google services. Verizon pumping money into the DROID brand on devices that use Google services serves that purpose.

I have two. One running Android 4.3, unlocked, rooted and with CyanogenMod Recovery 6.0.4.3 and the other Ubuntu Touch (debating whether to install Replicant and try a Google-free phone for a while). I'm actually disappointed in Google not officially supporting the Galaxy Nexus with 4.4. Sure the CyanogenMod/XDA people will no doubt port 4.4 over for the GNex. Still for a two-year old phone it holds up not as a powerhouse phone but a solid developmental phone to flash various ROM's with.

That's the big point right there. I'm disappointed on purely philosophical grounds that Google didn't bring the update to the GNex, but the fact of the matter is that the majority of Gnex units sold were CDMA, and the CDMA carriers in the US are just now getting around to pushing 4.3. The odds of the carriers pushing 4.4 to two-year-old devices that didn't sell all that well in the first place are comical.

They supported it for two years! Jeez, don't be greedy. A lot of time and money goes into these devices and it is ridiculously to think they'll be supported forever. If they waste time and not QA for every antique device then their new technology will lag behind. Compared to OEM devices that get maybe one update 12 months down the road the Nexus is still the best deal in town.

Greedy?? Look, I don't care if they update it or not, BUT since they made it a point to bring easier support for lower spec and older devices, it would have been nice to include support for their own old device, if for no other reason than to back up the claim and show real world proof of how it works

Verizon is ultimately to blame, though Sprint only getting 4.3 now didn't help matters much either. The CDMA versions of the Galaxy Nexus greatly tarnished the "nexus" brand. I am sure Google seeks to put that behind them sooner rather than later.

I agree, its not a good lead and given that this OS is supposed to work on older devices I'd have assumed they should have tested on older Nexus phones and certainly should release it on those that could support it. You'd have to assume this would be a relatively trivial amount of work.

I think they are not updating it because of the issues Samsung vs Apple received. I think that left Samsung and Google in a bad place, and since their new partner is LG it wouldnt be right to update another nexus made from Samsung, my 2 cents.

Highly doubt it since they updated it to 4.3 just a few months ago. It's more about resources and the fact that the few people who bought it are already in another phone (either the Nexus 4 or Galaxy S4). So why pay your employees money to update the gnex when you can pay them to optimize the software on better, and bigger things?

Have the G2 its pretty awesome the battery and camera are both amazing don't mind some of the tweeks LG has thrown in with lock screen animation customizing ,app drawer tweeks and so on , that being said I really waiting for reviews on the Nexus 5 camera and battery if they are similar then I might sell it and get the nexus.

Exactly. Google doing this and openly saying that the phone is beyond their 18 month life cycle is just giving the OEMs another excuse they can use to not update stuff since they can no longer say they phones aren't powerful enough to run it.

I don't get why anyone's surprised either; it hasn't had any fewer software updates than previous devices. I was holding out some hope given that KitKat is supposedly better optimised than Jelly Bean, but I'm not surprised. I might have a play around with some custom 4.3 ROMs and see what the 4.4 ROMs look like stability-wise before picking up the 5, though.

I keep seeing Replicant being mentioned as and alternative ROM, but I can't seem to find a port for anything other than Maguro (GSM/HSPA+). Nothing for Toro (CDMA). If anyone has a link or proper search query for it please reply.
Thanks,
Dejected in Ct.

its pretty much applying to devices coming up in the future, you know those tiny phones you find on cricket, and boost. Usually manufactured by Kyocera or ZTE these devices have a close to stock version of android and usually sport between 512MB-1GB. I'm sure this will be a great match for the low end Lumia's

It seems that the chip manufacturers have a big input when new updates have to be implemented. I remember HTC had a similar problem when snapdragon stopped support for one of there recent chips. Customers weren't happy at all but HTC couldn't do anything without support from snapdragon. This seems to be a similar situation that TI has stopped working on mobile chips so it puts Google in a similar situation as HTC. I'm sure they would love to give kit kat to the galaxy nexus if they could but sometimes there's not a lot a person can do I suppose.

Your experience isn't everyones. There is a huge group of people that have spoken out in forums etc. that their iphone4 is very slow and finicky on ios7. Something Google was probably trying to avoid with the gnex and why they aren't updating it.

Well all we have to go off of for "who you are" is your comments here. And you don't come off as "loving" your gs4. If I remember correctly you called it something along the lines of "a laggy piece of trash". but thats fine, flip flop and become a walking contradiction.

It's definitely a shame for people with the galaxy nexus, but we shouldn't be surprised as this follows the pattern Google has established. Besides, two years is actually a very good update life cycle by today's standards. and there's always custom ROMs!

This should be no surprise. The Galaxy Nexus is two years old. It had a great run though. Clearly the most beautiful phone I've ever had. When I move on to the Nexus 5, my Galaxy Nexus will be used as my alarm clock......maybe.

No reason. I'm also amused that the guy below me mentioned rooting/ROMS which can be done easier than ever with ANY PHONE. The new LG G2 has a one click root solution for every carrier. This was done weeks ago. If you want a value phone off contract AND really want stock android then you can go the Nexus route but there will always be a phone with better specs. There will always be a ROM that can add onto what Google has already done to utilize those higher specs. Even when people said "well at least you will always have bleeding edge software"....Psych. We can't even get 2 years just like any other phone. There is nothing the Nexus can do that any other phone can even if it take a little tinkering (less than ever). Tons of things the new G2 (or other flagships) can do that the Nexus can't. Like have outstanding battery life or have the best camera on any Android. You can't flash that.

I'm somewhat not amused myself since I have two GNex. But as I and others have stated, CyanogenMod/XDA/Someoneelse will port 4.4 for it. Or install something different like I have with my other GNex - Ubuntu Touch (which I'm following very keenly). Or a non-Google/FOSS experience with Replicant/F-Droid.

This is such bull. The main reason to buy Nexus is for official updates in a timely fashion direct from Google, for a product officially endorsed by Google. The device is still plenty powerful enough too. Lame Google.

Reinforces my decision to finally give up and ditch it (and VZW) a couple of weeks ago.

I was excited about the GN 2 years ago, as my first Android device and one of these mystical "Google phones" (which it turned out to be anything but.) I was even one of the idiots who stood in line for it at release.

But VZW screwing with the release date for months, locking the bootloader, obstructing update rollouts. Coupled with awful radios than never ceased to let me down, increasingly poor performance with each eventual update, and battery life *so* appalling it's hard to find suitably descriptive words. It had so much potential but turned out amazingly frustrating, certainly coming out as one of my worse tech purchase decisions from the last 2 years. It also turned me off Nexus devices completely, sadly -- I'd rather get the slew of features, support, and accessories from a "mainstream" phone and hack it around to my liking with custom ROMs.

On the plus side, it broke me into Android, familiarized me with the concepts of bootloaders, root, flashing custom ROMs, the distinction between ROMs/recoveries/kernels, and showed me what pure Android looks like so I can recognize the features and layers added or omitted by TouchWiz and the like.

Meh, I just dropped my last Galaxy Nexus in the mailbox this morning to be sold. The resale value on those fell through the floor pretty quickly. I got 70 bucks for each and was pretty surprised to get that much.
And as much I hate to admit it. I was not liking my Galaxy Nexus much near the end of my contract anyway.

Yeah, in the Milwaukee area, they are still going for around 150. It's not surprising, to see it depreciate quickly. When I purchased my "late GNex," last year, I got it for 265. It originally retailed for 400, then Google slashed the price by 50, after the Apple embargo. The Nexus S is still selling for around 80-100.

I left my Galaxy Nexus for an iPhone 5C due to the garbage battery on it. I would've been with it much longer if that problem didn't exist but I just didn't want the hassle. Android is still my love though and I'll be enjoying 4.4 on my trusty Nexus 7. Maybe I'll run a ROM on my Gnex just to try it all out (perhaps use it as a media player now).

This is really sad and unexpected. The Nexus S update life was so ridiculously long I would brag about how great Google/Android is about updating their hardware.

It was actually one of the points I was making to my girlfriend who was thinking of switching from iPhone to Android. That she would get better version compatibility support from a genuine Google phone.

Now I have to be honest with her and tell her that Google is lower on the totem pole of update support for than Apple is :(

This 18 month policy is really, really discouraging. I guess Google never figured out that people who love their smart phones (but aren't tech hounds) keep them for a long time and this kind of support builds brand loyalty. (It did with me, anyway -- I don't buy a new phone every 2 years)

Not to mention the fact that many "non tech savvy" people could care less about updates. I can't tell you how many people I spoke to when asked if they updated to ios7 said something along the lines of "oh no, I know not to do that. I like my phone the way it is, I don't want it to change and mess everything up."

Gaaaa.....well that just made my decision to upgrade my 2 year old phone to something new an easier decision. I was hoping to stay on stock Android a little longer, but now, I guess that Moto X will be the one to take a look at (I'm stuck on Verizon - Work phone so I don't have a carrier choice). Maybe I just need to face it and go Touch Wiz on a Note 3......Why couldn't Verizon just get the Nexus 5.....a totally depressing day for a stock Android fanboy :-(

This is so lame by Google. And here I keep telling people Google will support the newer hardwares longer.

It's not a big deal for me since KitKat will be ported to the GNex anyway, just need to "fastboot oem unlock", "fastboot flash recovery twrp.img", and flash the rom. But it sucks for people who don't know how.

Maybe Google will change their mind if there is a big petition, I would sign it even if I don't have a Gnex anymore.

Perhaps they stopped because they didn't want to deal with having to release it on Verizon and Sprint as well.

With all that said, I'll be eating halloween candies and messing with the Nexus 5 factory image.

Bummer. GNex has certainly been updated quite a bit, but I don't think the user experience would suffer on 4.4.was hoping for the update. I prefer my GNex to the wife's N4. Smaller and slimmer and don't need a case. Was planning on holding onto GNex until next year. Custom ROM it will have to be.

Why are people so mad? My GNex has served me well the past two years. It feels old to me at least. I am a little disappointed that 4.4 won't be coming to it from a value perspective, but could really care less as I've ordered the Nexus 5. I can load cool Roms on it and keep it as a backup. IMHO I think the new optimizations in 4.4 are designed to work on supported low powered chipsets like for smart watches and future companion devices. The words "low end" mean different things to different people. Hell, the GS3 by the end of this year will be considered low end and is now a prepaid "flagship". Moto isn't making the profit Google needs yet so there has to be cuts on a resource level. It's just business!

Engadget is reporting that TI, the manufacturer of the chipset for the Galaxy Nexus, may be the ones to blame. They have not been in the mobile market for a while now and may not be able to provide Google the support necessary to get 4.4 working adequately on the GNex. I imagine Google would update the GNex otherwise. It cannot be that hard for them to accomplish.

This is crap! Thank goodness for custom roms....But this is still crap there's no reason why it shouldn't get updated....especially if it's hardware can handle it. I could see not updating it if it was a hardware issue but it's not. Just age.....c'mon Google really?

Would like to think that my N4 will see more than 2 years of updates even though I will probably upgrade to N5 within next few months. It would be great to see KitKat running on some lower end devices, interested to see if it allows for a smoother experience.

All you Galaxy Nexus owners won't be left completely out of the cool, calm KitKat waters. Most of the great new features will be available via individual apks. Only the core home screen functions may require a custom rom, which I'm sure the Android community is already working on.

I think that it is pretty disappointing that they are not upgrading this phone, not because it makes sense commercially (it doesn't) but because of the messaging it sends out to customers about Android - the best you can hope for is 2 years worth of updates and nothing more and even that is only if you buy Nexus.

No matter how old a phone is, if it is capable of running a newer OS, I don't see why it should be "thrown out". It shouldn't just be up to the community to keep them going.

4.4 is only an incremental upgrade so there is no real reason why it could not have been released. I could understand if it was a major release that changed everything.

One thing that I don't quite understand is how bugs and security issues are patched on older Android releases - can this be done via Play services, or does it come to come via an OTA update (which may or may never come)? Do we simply have millions of phones with security holes which will never be fixed?

Since 4.3 roms for the VZW Galaxy Nexus still have issues, I'm not holding out much hope that there will be any stable 4.4 roms. In hindsight, maybe I should have bitten the bullet on a Moto X instead of buying a second used GNex when my first one crapped out.

This should really be a surprise to no one. The Nexus One stopped receiving updates after 2.3, meaning it never got 4.0, which was first launched on the Galaxy Nexus, 2 years after it's original launch. Likewise, the Nexus S ceased receiving updates after the launch of the Nexus 4, at which time the Nexus S was a 2 year old phone. Given that the Galaxy Nexus is now 2 years old, this should be no surprise, and Nexus 4 owners shouldn't expect much in the way of updates a year from now.

As other posters have noted, with the way the Play Store works now, there's still useful life in older devices, as I don't recall seeing any apps that require even 4.1 or above.

People forget that not everyone wants to / needs to / can replace their phone every two years. On the other hand, if it still works for you, keep it. My two year contract is up on my RAZR, and I may just hold on to it for a while longer. Its last update was 4.1 earlier this year. I run a custom ROM. I don't think I'm missing out on any really cool or crucial functionality. And it runs all the apps I want.

Sundar Pichai replied in a Google+ thread that it was due to lack of support from the original chipset manufacturer (TI, who had exited the smartphone business), so that's kinda plausible but still sucks, and he also mentioned that the newer chipsets in the Nexus 4 and 5 phones will be "supported well".

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by the Android Open Source Project
and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License. AndroidCentral is an independent site
that is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.